You’re a business leader and marketer. You have been for years now.You know how to appeal to your persona, you know how to create the perfect voice, and you know how to drive sales with your incredible content.

You have read countless articles on how-to create the most impacting and powerful content

As fellow marketers, we know that there are some things that bear repeating. One such topic is how to use words that will hook, engage, and, dare we even say it, manipulate target consumers.

Buzzwords For Internet Marketing

Buzzwords create a ‘hum’ or a ‘buzz’ in the brain of your consumer.

Buzzwords will literally light up various sections of your brain—for instance, the part of the brain associated with gratification or the expectation of pleasant things will light up when they see a title promising to give them something they want.

“Secret Tips to Perfect Deserts” and “Travel to Your Favorite Romantic GetawayDestination For Free” are examples of headlines that promise a reward for click-through.

Conversely, the part of the brain associated with curiosity or learning will be activated when they see an article with buzzwords promising a ‘how-to’ or indicating that they will be receiving desirable information.

Utilizing our understanding of the human brain and manipulating it is a system called neuromarketing. While we aren’t going to dive deep into that topic here, remember that this theory is the basis of much of the research that has pinpointed our various buzzwords.

What Words To Use?

Some buzzwords have been in use for decades and are the little black dress of your verbiage closet, so to speak. Other trendy buzzwords are more like the hipster hornrims and moustache-bedazzled t-shirts of today.

Additionally, some buzzwords may have been highly effective in recent years, but have lost their edge due to overuse. (We all have the old fallback in our word-closet. But we know better, don’t we?)

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind for your titles and your headlines:

1. Don’t forget to keep your keywords to the left. When it comes to good SEO, our keywords are highly important tools in our SEO arsenal. Thus, we need to remember that keywords are most effective when they are furthest to the left. Be inventive with your title, but don’t forget your basic ‘good SEO’ rules.

2. Don’t forget to explain your topic. While caught up in the throes of creative genius, it can be easy to forget that your audience doesn’t already know what your article is about. Be catchy, but don’t forget that clarity nearly always outweighs being clever.

3. Keep it short. There isn’t much room available for your title when it comes up in the search engine results. Keeping your title pithy and short will help you have a bigger impact on your consumer—and a greater chance of click-through.

4. Keep it simple. Ok, YOU might be a literary scholar that studies antediluvian words for fun in your free time (words like antediluvian, for example…), but you have to remember that not everyone else does as well. The words in your headlines and titles need to be ones that the general public would know. When in doubt, grab someone from your tech team and ask if they know the word. If they say no, drop it and pull out your thesaurus to find something more familiar.

The Marketer’s DIY Guide To Effective Titles

It’s all well and good for us to talk about it and throw some buzzwords at you—but what you actually need is a quick DIY guide to creating quippy titles. So, here are some rules of thumb that are good to file away.

1. Numbers, Numbers, Numbers

Use specific numbers so that the audience knows what to expect. Research has shown that audiences and individuals feel more at ease when they know what’s coming. By giving them a specific number, such as “5 Worst Places To Spend Your Money”, they know that they are able to read a list of the five places, no more, no less.

Larger numbers typically have a broader reach than small numbers. By this we mean that articles stating, “101 Ways to Save The World” is going to travel farther, and more quickly, than an article entitled, “3 Ways You Can Cut Down on Energy.”

The Spark of Curiosity:

Cliffhangers.

Every good writer knows that the way to keep your reader turning page after page, chapter after chapter, and book after book, is by creating unbearable cliffhangers.

“What everyone should know…”

“You’ll never believe…”

You want to engage the part of your consumers brain that recognizes that there is information out there that they don’t know—and that they want to know. This not only engages the learning area of the brain, but also the area that is expecting a pleasant reward.

The Element of Surprise:

In a digital world that basically floats upon the ability to provide constant entertainment, a symptom of this media-addiction is that if it isn’t surprising or eye-catching, your average consumer (especially the millennial generation) are probably going to skip on over it.

Using words like, ‘startling’ ‘shocking’ and phrases that follow the idea of ‘you didn’t know this, but OMG you should!’ are going to be key in catching and keeping the attention of various target audiences.

Be careful with the use of surprise—if your title hints that your article is going to be dishing the latest and greatest gossip regarding thenext Google algorithm update, you’d better deliver. Readers that are disappointed with an article that didn’t live up to their expectations are very rarely going to come back to you for more.

The ‘How-To’ Hook:

Appealing to the ‘how-to’ and DIY crowd, an ever-growing population of consumers, is a tried and true tactic that indicates to your consumer that you, amongst all the other businesses clamoring for their business, actually want to teach them how to solve their own problems. And, of course, we both know that the secret to writing a how-to is to honestly explain to them why DIY is (and almost always) not a truly viable solution for their problems.

Using ‘how-to,’ ‘DIY,’ and ‘learn how’ are excellent hooks to pull in this independent crowd.

The Power of Negatives:

It may surprise you to know that negatives are the new positives. It is speculated that the overuse of words like, ‘best,’ ‘always,’ and their synonyms is the reason that most consumers agree that such words are ‘spammy.’

Instead, create a positive by using a blatant negative:
Never
Worst
Don’t
Avoid

And don’t forget to use all the synonyms of ‘bad’ that your thesaurus can come up with.

Addressing the Audience

We did it in our intro—hey you marketer that wants to get better…Using titles and headlines that directly address your buyer persona and their felt needs are going to have an instant magnetic effect on your consumer.

This personal address creates a feeling of connection with you, the business. It will help to build trust, and activate the parts of the brain associated with communication.

Making It Your Own

The reality is, our content writing friend, that the business or industry you are writing for is going to be somewhat unique with what words are your buzzwords.

While some we’ve suggested are tried and true words that have spanned marketing generations, others just may not jive with your target demographic. And that’s ok. That’s why we’re teaching you how to recognize your own buzzwords. It’ll take time, effort, and lots of paying attention, but understand that the arsenal of articulate, client grabbing words that you’ll collect are well worth it.

Step 1. Start paying greater attention to your titles and headlines. Begin using the new strategies you’ve learned (or been reminded of!).

Step 2. Analyze those posts. How successful were they? How many shares did they receive? Keep track of this. Posts that you notice see a huge increase in social activity, click-throughs, and conversions should especially catch your eye. What words are in that title?

Step 3. Start paying attention to what you gets you to convert. A good source of inspiration is to examine the headlines that pulled you into an article. Keep track of the words that inspired you to convert, and think about the things in
that headline that stood out to you.

Step 4. Build a list of the words that you’ve found to be an effective buzzword. The next time you’re struggling with a title, and need a power-packed headline, you’ll have this list of golden words to refer to—and they will be the special words that you’ve fleshed out as red-hot for your buyer personas.

What are your buzzwords for your industry? What words do you have pinned to your wall for title and headline inspiration? We look forward to assisting you with your strategies when it comes to creating exceptional content and incredible internet marketing campaigns.

Market Your Business With Ease and the eManagerSite

eManagerSite’s marketing features easily allow anyone to promote their business and maximize audience reach with our built-in blog, search engine optimization tools, and email marketing plugin. Email Marketing: Send out email campaigns to customers, employees, and other business owners through our email marketing plugin. Use HTML to design beautiful emails that can then be sent to any number of customers, as many times a month as needed. Include pictures, files, videos, links, and more in every email.
SEO: Search engine optimization used to be difficult — not any more! eManagerSite lays out the best ways to increase SEO by allowing users to change meta tags, edit keywords, and more. Because every eManagerSite website is based on simple and clean HTML and CSS, they will already bring in stronger results than a site built in WordPress, Joomla, etc. Blog: No need to sign up with an outside site to get a blog. Every eManagerSite account has a blog included for free, with access to all the blog management tools a business needs. Posting is as easy as typing on the screen, or copying and pasting from Microsoft Word! You can then add images, files, videos, and links of your choice. Schedule your blog to post now or later, and track its success with our built-in analytics. Categorize blogs by “tagging” them, and automatically allow visitors on your site to sort blogs by date, month, or topic.
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Create Content with eManagerSite That Makes People Care

Creating a story. Writing a blog. Crafting a tweet. Taking a picture. Developing a concept. Whatever social media content you’re working on eManagerSite can help you. It’s easy to get caught up in the creativity. That’s totally understandable if you get preoccupied with ROI or brand goals. It’s also likely that your focus is on the most effective way to promote a campaign or new product. This is when marketers lose sight of the question that should be on the top of their mind throughout the entire content creation process: why do people care?

Making your audience care is the key to cultivating brand loyalty. Producing content that helps develop that relationship is the key to being creative. You’ve got to keep your brand goals in mind and find a way to reach your business priorities, while still making content that will stand out in the social media space. Below are five easy ways to create effective content that truly resonates with your audience.

1. Create an emotional connection
Strong social content makes fans and followers feel not something just for the brand, but about their own lives. It can make them think of a family member or friend that has been affected by the topic you’re posting about, or just remind them that they should call their mom. Regardless of how it hits them, what matters are that your post makes them stop, think and feel–and then hopefully, share.

2. Teach them something
it’s a no-brainer that facts do well on social. Giving people new information, engaging infographics or even useless-but-funny tips is a great way to connect. Facts are also a great way to share new and interesting info about your brand or organization. Giving the audience insight into your company creates a new level of understanding of your brand and also gets your audience thinking.

3. Give them something
Whether it’s a code for a free gift or something exclusive for the fans and followers of your page, make their connection with your brand mutually beneficial. If you’re asking for their loyalty, business and support, why not give something back? It doesn’t always have to be the biggest or the best giveaway, but showing them that you care enough to do something for your audience is a good way to demonstrate that you care and that you’re listening to what they want.

4. Make them laugh
Social media makes marketing a two-way conversation. Social is the perfect place to be a little less buttoned up and do what you can to encourage your audience to laugh a little. It’s easier to show the softer side of your company, while also putting out good content. So loosen up–your audience wants to know that there’s a human on the other side of all that content.

5. Show them your softer side
it’s okay to brag about the good your brand does in the world. Most companies are doing some CSR work or at least donating…tell your fans about it! Knowing that a brand is working on more than just pursuing profits deepens the connection and helps them see your company in a new way. Show them that not only are you making a good product, but you also are able to use some of the money that you’re getting from consumers to make a positive impact on the world.

The bottom line is that every post has to be a conversation that creates a deeper connection. Stay focused on your bottom line and product goals, but understand how those can be achieved through a strong relationship with consumers. Be human, be transparent, be interesting and be honest. That’s how to make social work for your brand.

Want a great content manager for your website? Contact us today and let us take your site in to the future with eManagerSite.

Do you want to win customers? Let us help by giving you confidence in your website’s value.

Whatever your website need, you will benefit from our: Unmatched Customer Service – you’ll have full confidence in our ability to listen and understand your vision. We are not happy unless you are.

Customer Centric Website Design – you’ll have more opportunity to communicate your organization’s value and win customers.

Professionally Managed Projects – helps to keep things on track and within budget. After all, your time is valuable and you should be focusing on the needs of your business and not your website.

Hassle-free Website Edits – ability to make website edits and content changes without costly change requests helps ensure the final version of your website is exactly what you envision.

eManagerSite
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Shoddy Web site design is a curse of modern life. The more dependent we have become on the Internet for information, the likelier we are to suffer from its design deficiencies. Bad design can be infuriating, inconvenient or damaging in any field. But it is especially frustrating in areas like this where many of us find the technology so inscrutable that we tend to blame ourselves for being baffled, because we feel unable to judge whether the design is at fault. So what does constitute good and bad Web site design?

In principle, a well-designed Web site needs to deliver the same things as most other examples of good design by fulfilling its intended function efficiently and engagingly. On the efficiency front, given that the most important purpose of most Web sites is to enable us to access information, helping us to find it effortlessly is essential. Straightforward though this sounds, dispiritingly few sites manage to achieve it. A common mistake is to prioritize style over substance. Fashion and luxury brands often do so by using animation software, which produces luscious visual images that can take ages to upload.

Other sites fall prey on using sophisticated technologies, which look dazzling when they show the sites to clients on their state-of-the-art computers, but considerably less so on older, cheaper machines with slower Internet connections, or on the cramped screens of phones.

But the principal problem with many Web sites is that their designers were neither rigorous nor imaginative enough in planning the way we will navigate them. Ideally, they should anticipate all of the individual items of information that we will wish to find, and how we might choose to combine them. They must then organize the site so that the requisite data is delivered promptly. If you find information swiftly and easily on a Web site, its designer has succeeded. But if you need to click on an inordinate number of buttons and links, or are confused over what to do next, the designer has failed.

Want a great website? Contact us today and let us take your site in to the future.

Do you want to win customers? Let us help by giving you confidence in your website’s value. Whatever your website need, you will benefit from:

Unmatched Customer Service – you’ll have full confidence in our ability to listen and understand your vision. We are not happy unless you are.

Customer Centric Website Design – you’ll have more opportunity to communicate your organization’s value and win customers.

Professionally Managed Projects – helps to keep things on track and within budget. After all, your time is valuable and you should be focusing on the needs of your business and not your website.

Hassle-free Website Edits – ability to make website edits and content changes without costly change requests helps ensure the final version of your website is exactly what you envision.

TCC Web Interactive
A Division of the Computer Company, Inc.
Website Design CT
15 Commerce Drive, Cromwell, CT
info@tccwebinteractive.com
(800) 418-2358

When my daughter Mary was in the fifth-grade, she came home with a report card that was, shall we say, less than impressive. This bright, hard working girl was getting D’s in social studies, science, and health. The first parent-teacher conference of the year was held ten weeks after school began, and it wasn’t until then that I learned of the problems she was having.

At the conference, I asked her teacher a favor. “Please let me know what Mary needs to know in these areas, when the test dates are, and when the projects are due. I will help make sure she knows what she needs to know!”

A bit flustered, the teacher said she would get back to me.

I never saw the list of competencies or test dates, but I also noticed Mary never received less than a B in her class again. While at the time I viewed this as victory for proactive parenting, I have since worried that the skills and knowledge Mary should have gained during that year fell by the wayside.

Mary’s teacher missed a tremendous opportunity by not enlisting my help and the help of the other children’s parents in her class. Over one-fourth of the year was gone before I knew my son was having problems. Even had I known he was struggling, I did not know enough about the curricular content or teacher’s expectations to know how to help.

Parents do want to help. They just need information. And technology can help you provide that information.

Yes, a classroom website can improve communication between you and your students and their families. If you’ve ever run into problems with students not taking papers home to their parents, then you need a website! Websites are effective communicators!
There are 4 ways that a website can communicate and benefit a teacher:

1. A website is open for business 24-7. People can go to your website any day, at any time of day. It is convenient. Parents can read the homework assignments or the information about that upcoming field trip. The website will be working for you even when you are asleep! It saves you time and expense. There is no way that you could schedule conferences around the clock like that. A website can take the place of meetings, parent pages, newspapers, brochures, and announcements.Thus, a website expands your time.

2. A website gives you unlimited exposure. People in your community and even from half way around the world can visit your website. Parents can give your website address to relatives who live out of town.Thus, a website expands your range.

3. Because a website expands your time and range, people that you probably would never reach through any other medium, including other teachers, can see what your class is doing. They can contact you through your website. Your website will enable you to connect with other educators who share your interests.Thus, a website expands your resources.

4. Since the great majority of students is really interested in the Internet, a website can captivate their attention and challenge them to become more interested in their school work. In their eyes, a website is “totally cool.”Thus, a website can challenge your students to become more interested in their school work.

Anything that will expand your time, your range, your resources, and also interest your students is bound to be worthwhile.

Some people are afraid to create a website. They think that it is too complicated and beyond their capabilities. Please don’t let this kind of thinking stop you. The Internet is a golden opportunity for teachers. Don’t let it pass you by. You can get a free  classroom  website right here today! Here’s an opportunity for you to get started.

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For interactive designers and developers, the mobile revolution is here. Mobile browsers have been around since the ’90s, but Apple’s launch of the iPhone in 2007 enlightened us to the true potential of handheld mobile devices and became the catalyst for today’s mobile explosion. With continuous introductions of more powerful and usable touchscreen phones and tablets stimulating the rapid growth in mobile browsing, companies can no longer afford to ignore the mobile experience associated with their brand.

Inevitably, focus is shifting away from developing native apps for individual devices and platforms, to developing mobile sites and web applications that provide excellent user experiences across all devices and mobile browsers.

This shift is happening for many of the same reasons our desktop software applications are moving to the cloud. An application that works well for everyone, everywhere, and on every platform is a beautiful thing for everyone involved. When a cloud-based application is updated, the change is instantaneous for everyone that uses that application. The same applies to mobile websites. There’s no need for a lengthy app approval process, no need to prompt users to download updates and no need to develop for every device and mobile operating system.

Great mobile sites start with function over form

Mobile users tend to look for mobile sites that address a need (entertainment, productivity, and communication are the most popular). Therefore, it is imperative that design serves to facilitate the underlying functional requirements of the site. Confusing user interface or poor performance will irrevocably damage user trust, rendering even the most beautiful designs moot.

Performance is the new sexy

Mobile users have a bewildering number of choices for interactive engagement. Any new mobile site has to compete with 500,000+ iOS apps, 260,000 Android apps, and more than 4 million mobile-optimized websites. Performance is the easiest and best way to stand out. Users have no tolerance for slow performance, but a strong appreciation for mobile sites that get the job done.

Simple is as simple does

Mobile sites must be driven from a simple idea or concept and then execute flawlessly against that concept. So, pick an idea that has real value to potential users and then deliver that value in an easy to understand site. Mobile sites that quickly communicate simple and compelling value to consumers have a much higher success rate than those sites that do not.

Don’t build an app when a site will do

Mobile apps are great because they do things that mobile sites can’t do. But it doesn’t make sense to use them for what a site can do. Mobile apps lock development and design into specific ecosystems, require significant redundant development to cross platforms, add a vast amount of management complexity, and involve powerful outside actors in the process (carriers, handset manufacturers, operating system developers, store administration, and others). Mobile sites avoid all of these things and allow for a much faster path to execution. Have a clear understanding of what mobile sites can and can’t do and plan accordingly.

Engage the design team early and often

Despite the technical challenges of mobile execution, sites still begin and end with designers. Many mobile sites (and apps) clearly have an engineering first approach and they have a very high failure rate. Great technology and development are certainly the foundations of success in mobile but they are not the determinants of success. Design is. Designers should be involved with every stage of development.

Balance design elements to drive performance

While designers need to be involved early, so do developers. Mobile devices are very underpowered compared to traditional computers, so the performance impact of design elements is even more exacerbated on mobile devices. It is important to balance design directions with the realities of what can be executed well on mobile devices.

Define brands in the user interface The user interface should reflect the brand’s identity. Most mobile web traffic is destination drivenand few mobile sites are discovered through browsing. Brand awareness in the design process increases user recognition, leverages existing user loyalty, and results in enhanced user satisfaction. This would include focusing on visual language, consistent text, brand fonts, and incorporating core functions that are also as closely associated with a brand as possible.

Identify and address core users

Mobile is inherently more selective than the general public web and the mobile ecosystem is far more fractured. Further, mobile users will visit the mobile website away from their keyboards and out in the real world. Much of that interaction will be driven by the function or content of the mobile site in question. For example, a shopping tool is much more likely to be used in an actual retail environment than a wine review site would be, which is why it’s vital that mobile sites be specifically developed to address distinct user profiles and use cases.

Optimize design for perceived performance

The sad truth is that no matter how well a site is implemented, the mobile ecosystem remains unreliable. Carriers, locations, and devices can all have a pronounced effect on mobile web performance. Therefore, it is critical to identify those areas of potential performance degradation (such as data fetching and calculations) and then develop design strategies to minimize the user performance impact of a slowdown. For example, operations that require outside data retrieval, like populating a location specific form, can be broken into step-by-step mini flows as opposed to single step execution. That way each flow is easy to accomplish and the interactions provide time for the website to perform its performance task without appearing to slow down. Load screens are another example. By providing load imagery, such as progress bars and the like, the user is given the impression of performance or progress that can operate independently of the actual performance of the site.

Balance design priorities with performance requirements

Mobile sites have to perform well, look great, and deliver significant user value on underpowered computers that use tiny screens with limited bandwidth (you know, smartphones). Pulling this off isn’t easy and it requires that design and development both inform and guide each other. Design that is unappealing will turn off the most technically efficient site, while great design is largely irrelevant when implemented on a rickety development foundation. The success or failure of mobile websites is most often attributed to how well these two disciplines are balanced.

Want to maximize your website with Mobile Readiness?

Contact us today at
TCC Web Interactive

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Computer Company, Inc

info@tccwebinteractive.com

(860) 635-0500

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Google certainly kept SEO experts at Web Interactive and our marketers on their toes throughout all of 2013. Think 2014 will bring more of the same? An educated guess would answer yes and no. Algorithms are always being tweaked and refined, so in that sense, you bet there will be new hoops to jump through. But high-quality, fresh content has never gone out of style. In that sense, 2014 will be more of the same.

For those aspects that are not as consistent as fabulous content, it takes a detailed watch of past trends and current search nuances to   see where things might be headed in 2014. Let’s take a gander at predicting what marketers will need to pay attention to this year in the world of SEO.

Content Marketing Continues to Dominate

The heart of your successful 2014 SEO campaigns should most definitely contain extensive content marketing. This trend saw a huge surge in 2013, and the momentum is expected to continue tenfold. Content marketing and SEO are best friends because great content does indeed equal great SEO. Content has a myriad of functions in addition to providing search engines quality results, but for the sake of SEO, nothing could be more critical to your efforts than comprehensive and consistent content marketing campaigns.

It’s All About Semantics

Semantic and entity search are two aspects that Google’s Hummingbird update has highlighted, so it’s reasonable to expect these tactics will be even more important in the coming year.

Semantic search highlights more responsive and in-depth search results. Google is always looking to improve how it responds to user search terms, aiming to better answer the searcher’s quest with every update. When we speak of entity search, we simply mean we are supporting Google’s efforts in creating more accurate results when a user triggers a search query. Entity and semantics search efforts therefore go hand in hand.

How can you partner with Google and ensure your site is semantics compatible? Because semantic search techniques use HTML to emphasize the focus, meaning, and overall content of site pages, you’ll need to review your keyword and meta data strategies to ensure you’re compliant. Most sites originally drafted this content as a means to define the overall theme and structure of the site – this represents a subtle but critical shift, so reviewing your SEO language is integral to continued success.

Long Tail Gains Momentum

Another trend from 2013 that’s likely to see an uptick in popularity is Long Tail Keywords. Long tail keywords are more lengthy 3-5 word phrases that target specific, relevant search phrases used to access targeted content on your site.

Long tails are likely to increase their SEO power for a multitude of reasons. For starters, searches are becoming more and more targeted. People are less likely to search for “shoes” these days, and more likely to get far more specific – such as “red high heel stilettos.” It’s also much easier to rank higher for long tail keywords, as they are far less competitive.

Most notably, however, is the shift towards a focus in entity search. Because entity search is a more exact way for search engines to  discover the actual intent of the searcher, long tail searches will naturally become more relevant. Google and company are attempting to narrow down search results in a far more efficient and detailed manner. They can’t do this with generic keywords. The more specific and focused you become in your SEO efforts, the more likely you are to see stellar results.

Mobile Relevancy Will Continue to Skyrocket

Google’s Hummingbird update back in September of 2013 contained another essential ingredient; mobile content requirements. These days, if your site or content isn’t accessible on a mobile device, the search engines may deem it non-existent. All content you produce this year needs to be cross-device compatible. 33 percent of paid search clicks came from mobile devices in 2013 – this trend is only expected to increase, so your focus on mobile-friendly content should definitely follow suit.

Get Social, and Get on Google+

If you’re publishing content but not linking to it from your Google+ account, you’re missing out on some critical SEO benefits. With the new emphasis on author rank, Google is by-proxy encouraging marketers to get more active on their Google+ profiles and connect their content. If blogs and articles link to the author’s Google+ account, but a link doesn’t appear on their profile page, the author rank is not triggered. Author rank is another excellent element to good SEO, and can help significantly increase your reputation and credibility.

Social signals overall are bound to be even more important to SEO in 2014; as search engines are able to crawl more of these actual social sends, you can bet the algorithms will adjust accordingly. It’s also obvious that Google is not giving up on social network dominance, and they’ll continue to do all they can to make Google+ a relevant and popular social destination. Ignore these efforts and your SEO results may not improve.

Don’t Forget about Links

Many search experts have been sounding the alarm in 2013, announcing that link building for SEO is dead. Don’t believe the hype – Google continues to say differently. Why is link building still an important SEO focus? Because search engines still need context about the content you’re publishing, and its related utilities.

Link building is not just a mundane task of adding links to content, and courting the return. This also involves press releases, or advanced techniques like finding broken links on popular, high-ranking websites and filling the void with relevant content (called “broken link building”). All signs show that this un-sexy but highly necessary process still matters in a big way

Web Interactive addresses a full range of marketing needs, including email,  content and social media marketing—creating a winning synergy that delivers  quantifiable results. Want a free no obligation consultation with our experts

Contact us today at TCC Web Interactive

A Division of the Computer Company, Inc

info@tccwebinteractive.com

(860) 635-0500

(800) 418 2358

Article by Tina Courtney-Brown

Yes, on-page SEO has become more important and yes, on-page SEO can make or break your chances at ranking high on Google SERPs. But what has changed is the way we perceive and behave toward on-page SEO.

Most SEOs tend to think of on-page optimization as a very specific technical influx of code. You know the drill: meta tags, canonical URLs, alt tags, proper encoding, well-crafted, character-limit-abiding title tags, etc.

Those are the basics. And at this point, they are very old-school. They continue to appear on the on-page SEO checklist, but you know that the whole demography of SEO has changed vastly, even though the basic premise has remained the same. Because of that change, the way you perceive on-page SEO has to adjust as well. That’s what we’re going to look at now.

If your website isn’t properly optimized on-page, your efforts off the websi(link building, content marketing, social media) probably won’t yield substantial results. Not that they won’t generate anything at all, but more than half your efforts may end up going down the drain.

There’s no clear rule book that says: do X, Y, and Z in on-page optimization and your rank will rise by A, B, or C. On-page optimization is based on tests, analytics and errors. You learn more about it by discovering what doesn’t work than what does.

But of all the things to keep in mind, there’s this: If you don’t take care ofyour on-page SEO, you’re likely going to fall or stay behind: in rankings, in conversions, and in ROI.

But first let’s clear this one up: Why the fuss about on-page SEO? After all, there’s a ton of material available about it already.

The changing demography of search engine algorithms has altered the factors playing in to how one chooses to perform SEO. You can no longer think in terms of keywords and inbound links alone. Similarly, you can no longer think in terms of the meta and alt tags alone

On-page SEO isn’t just about how your site is coded. It’s also about how your site looks bare-bones (the robot view), and how your website responds to different screens. It includes load times and authority. And with the direction that Google is headed in 2013 and beyond, it’s clear that on-page elements and off-page elements must line up and agree with each other in a natural, clear, organic manner. That’s why we need to reevaluate on-page SEO a little more carefully.

1. Meta Tags Are Just the Beginning

We’ve known and used meta tags since their arrival. The meta “keyword” tag is long-gone, as an SEO ranking factor, but a lot of heat has been generated in discussions about the utility of meta description tags from an SEO point-of-view. More significantly than SEO ranking factors, is the fact that meta description tags provide an opportunity to affect how your website is displayed in search results. A great meta description tag can get your result clicked before the guy ranking above you. It’s still good practice to use keywords when you can, along with geographic identifiers (when applicable), but first and foremost should be the intent to attract clicks from humans.

2. Canonical, Duplicate, Broken Links, etc.

Google’s robots have become very smart, to the point where broken links and duplicate pages raise red flags faster than a bullet. That is precisely why you’ll find canonical links (and their corresponding codes) to be highly important. Broken links and dupes aren’t just anti-SEO. They are anti-user too. What’s your first reaction when you click on a link that just shows a page error?

3. The Robot’s Point of View

Text remains the most important part of any website even today. While Google does rank some videos and media higher than others for certain keywords, well-formatted and content-rich websites still rule the roost.To get a view of how your website looks to the crawlers, you can disable the javascript and images (under Preferences/Settings of your browser) and take a look at the resulting page. Though not totally accurate, the result is pretty much how your website looks to the crawler. Now, verify all the items on the following checklist:

• Is your logo showing up as text?
• Is the navigation working correctly? Does it
  break?
• Is the main content of your page showing up
  right after the navigation?
• Are there any hidden elements that show up when
  JS is disabled?
• Is the content formatted properly?
• Are all other pieces of the page (ads, banner
  images, sign-up forms, links, etc.) showing up after the main content?

The basic idea is to make sure the main content (the part you want Google to note) comes as early as possible with the relevant titles and descriptions in place.

4. Load Time Averages and Size

Google has long noted the size and the average load times of pages. This goes into the ranking algorithm by most counts and affects your position in the SERPs. This means you can have pretty good content on your website, but if the pages load slowly, Google is going to be wary of ranking you higher than other websites that load faster. Google is all for user satisfaction. They want to show their users relevant results that are also easily accessible. If you have tons of javascript snippets, widgets, and other elements that slow down the load times, Google isn’t going to award you a high ranking.

5. Think Mobile, Think Responsive

This is one of the most hotly discussed topics in online marketing today. From mobile ads and local search to market trend in desktop/tablet consumption, it’s clear that moving toward a mobile website is the wave of the future. When you think of a mobile/responsive website, how do you go about it? Responsive as in CSS media queries, or entirely new domains like “m.domain.com”? The former is recommended often because this keeps things in the same domain.

6. Authority & AuthorRank

The author-meta gets a new lease on life with Google promoting the AuthorRank metric. It’s a little more complex than that now, however. You will have to enable rich snippets for your website, make sure your Google+ profile is filled up, and link them up with your blog/website. AuthorRank has emerged as a very important and tangible metric that affects page rank, and is one of the on-page SEO tactics you should definitely do. Not only will it improve your rankings, but it will also improve your click-through rate in the SERPs.

7. Design Shouldn’t Be the Last Thing On Your List 

Ironically, I had to write about this as the last thing because many people remember only he last thing they’ve read in an article. Hardcore SEO people regularly overlook the importance of design. Aesthetics and readability stem directly from the design of a website. Google is good at figuring out what shows “above the fold” on websites, and Google explicitly recommends that you place content above the fold so your readers are treated to information rather than ads. On-page SEO isn’t only about the meta code and the canonical URL. It’s about how your website connects to the user and to the robot. It’s about how you make sure your website is accessible and readable, and still has enough information under the hood for the search engines to pick up easily.

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